Welcome from our Managing Director, John Varley

As Managing Director of Carlton Hotel Group, I'd like to welcome you to the Carlton Hotel Group blog. The Carlton Hotel Group was established in 2004 and since then has developed as one of the premier Hotel Groups in Ireland. In the past 9 years Carlton has grown substantially from operating one hotel to having a presence in many locations throughout Ireland.Through this blog it is my aim to give you an insight into what's going on in all of our hotels plus my opinions on current affairs, general activities and events. I will also by inviting some of my colleagues to write on the blog, giving you more opinions and insights into what's going on at Carlton. If you have any questions or queries on any of the posts please leave a comment and I will respond at my earliest convenience. Enjoy reading.............

This week began with Bill Cullen choosing his next apprentice in the final of TV3’s Apprentice and will end with me finding my new apprentice as we reach the final in the search for the Carlton Apprentice. On Monday night I attended the wrap party for TV’s Apprentice in Crystal ...

The final of the Apprentice aired last night on TV3 and it certainly didn’t disappoint, with both contestants proving they deserved their place in the final. Niamh and Michelle were set a marketing task by Bill where they had to host an event for three clients using experiential mark ...

It’s busy around the Carlton Group this week as all the hotels have been enthusiastically getting ready for the first Carlton Apprentice task. The first challenge began today with the gift voucher selling task in Tesco stores across Ireland. All of the candidates have been preparing ...

This week Bill Cullen’s apprentices faced one of their toughest tasks, the one most of them were probably dreading. The semi-final on The Apprentice is the interview round, where Bill organises for four of his business colleagues to grill each of the final candidates in interviews. T ...

Every year the same thing happens……the 1st of December arrives and I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas. You would think by now I’d be used to the year rushing in but without a doubt Christmas always seems to come earlier every year! The start of Christmas ...

After last week’s show saw two Apprentices being fired Bill was now left with only five candidates this week. As Michelle was on team Fusion on her own Bill moved Barry to join her which left a split of three against two. This week’s task involved creating a website and rewards ...

This week we had two representatives from the Carlton Hotel Group at the BBC Good Food Show at the NEC in Birmingham. Thys Vogels, general manager of the Carlton Hotel Tralee, was their representing Failte Ireland and George Hook, sales manager of the Carlton Hotel Kinsale, was representin ...